David's Story Part 21: Lobbying the Senate

2/14/04
Mary,

Monday David and I are going to the State House to participate in the lobbying the senate event. We will be in teams of three and will be assigned different senators to catch between committee meetings. I am hoping that David and I are teamed up with someone who has done this sort of thing before. I really wish the senators would be in their offices; the whole hallway thing bothers me.

I need to write to the senators this time. I am thinking about telling them that
I do not need a reply; it is so difficult to read all the responses from the conservatives.

I like reading the responses from the people who are on the correct side of the issue though. I want to be polite and respectful though. Will I ruin the tone of the letter if I say, "If you decide that you must support the amendment, it is not necessary to send me your justification for doing so"?

2/16/04
Mary,

Well, the lobbying went okay. Andrew and Hubby wanted to go to, so we all went.
We were the most obviously heterosexuals there. Anyway, we were assigned 5 different senators. My actual senator clearly wants to vote against it and needs to know that he can and keep his job. When we asked him if he would support the committee chair if she decides to kill it in committee (as she is rumored to be planning on doing) he said "absolutely."

We had one senator say that she was absolutely opposed to it and another that he was in favor of it. One only senator said that he had not read the bill yet and was very interested in what we had to say. Another was very passionate about the definition of marriage, and kept telling us that it was safe to do this because "civil agreements" were available to gay and lesbians. (By "civil agreements" she means specific legal documents like durable power of attorney for health care.) If we can convince her that the amendment will endanger those agreements we may be able to get her vote.

I hated talking to her by the way. She had this huge engagement/wedding/anniversary ring. She kept waving her left hand in the air, telling me that she supported gay people but didn’t understand why they have to flaunt their relationships.

Anyway, the four of us made for a very sympathetic group. We may have done some good today.

David's Story Part 1: The Beginning
David's Story Part 22: Report from a conference